Thawed
by Darkstormer
Summary: The Minister of Sith Intelligence, looking for any advantages to use against their foes, receives the location of a missing, presumed dead, former Dark Councilor and launched a one-woman rescue mission to gain a much needed ally. More importantly, she hopes his presence would quell the rising dissent between the Republic deserters and the Imperial forces on leave from the Empire.


A Sith is Thawed

With a gasp of air, he woke up trying to cough his lungs out. The first thing he noted as he looked up from his prone position is a pair of feet standing within arm's reach. He followed them up to her legs before a view of a muzzle of what looks like blaster pistol aimed at him made him stop in his tracks and reflexively blasted the perpetrator far back.

He noted with small satisfaction as he heard a dull thud accompanied an 'oof' when she hit something hard. Whoever she is should know not to trifle with him even with his weakened state. The Sith Lord tried to do more than stand in all fours on the floor, but before he could do anything other than twitch, he dry-heaved as his stomach tried to expel something.

Lana Beniko, Minister of Sith Intelligence seconded into the Resistance, wondered why she's seeing stars floating in her vision. Then, she remembered why. With a practiced grace, she stood up and shook her head. The Sith searched for the vaccine she tried to administer before the disoriented Darth blasted her off him.

In hindsight, she should have expected such reaction from him. He is after all one of the most dangerous Sith which had so far survive the war with the Republic, tangled with Darth Malgus and not only fought, but defeated the rogue Sith Lord. Not to mention his clash against the Revanites and Revan himself. Then, there was Ziost and the Sith Emperor, arguably the strongest force user in the galaxy.

When she finally spotted the vaccine, she called on the force and pulled it, snatching it mid-air once it was close enough. Lana then settled her gaze at the heaving Darth. She set herself to approach the volatile Sith, this time with caution.

"My Lord, Darth Imperious" she started. The Darth looked up and squinted his eyes at her direction. She was taken aback by the fierce sulfuric eyes, one of the tell-tale sign of a Sith practicing the Dark Side. This was the first time she saw the Dark Councilor without his signature skull-like motif mask. There, etched on one side of his face is a brand. A brand marking him as his status as one of the many slaves serving the Empire, before his force sensitivity bought him to the attention of the Sith Academy in Korriban.

More surprising to her is that his skin didn't have the black veins which is heavily associated to the constant use of the dark side. Nor does he had the distinct pallor skin. Given the many life-threatening, even life-ending situations the man faced, which she should take note as him having exceptional control over the dark side as oppose to most who let it channel them.

"Who are you?" he replied with a barely restrained snarl.

 _This is worse than I thought_ , Lana mumbled to herself before continuing, "My Lord, I'm Lana Beniko of Sith Intelligence. I'm here to break you out."

Imperious fought through the tilting world to focus on the blond woman who called herself Lana Beniko. An image of the same woman with a vastly differently-styled hair floated on his mind, then he remembered, "L-Lana? I- ugh!"

Lana hurried to his side and forced him to lay on his back. "This is going to hurt, but it will help with the pain." She pressed the muzzle of injector gun right on his chest where his heart is and pulled the trigger.

"GAHRRGH!" Imperious thrashed violently as the vaccine quickly coursed through his veins. Lana pressed her body against his as she tried to restrain the Sith from injuring himself any further. A minute later, the vaccine finally ran its course and the burning pain subsided.

Lana pulled back and stared at the prone Sith, his chest heaving as he gulped the precious air. She was conflicted to say the least. Her loyalty to the Sith Empire is still true and all even with the new head sitting at the throne due to being thought of as the last of the council to survive, but at the same time she's working side by side with Republic forces to bring Arkann down. The late Darth Marr and Darth Imperious knew the necessity of working alongside their sworn enemies which the new Empress seem reluctant to do.

If she had discovered where Imperious was imprisoned before freeing the hard-lined Jedi from her carbonite prison, maybe the cohesion between the two forces would have been different instead of being strained to the point crippling.

Suffice to say, her being here wasn't a sanctioned mission by the resistance, nor was this a covert mission by Sith Intelligence to recover a former Dark Councilor. Only Theron knew of her one woman mission, even then he doesn't know what her mission is supposed to be. Which infuriated the Republic SIS Agent to no end. She had to smile at that forced grin he gave her before she left. However, now's not the time to be reminiscing. She has a Sith to break out.

"My Lord. We need to leave. Now."

"The cold hard floor seems to be comfortable enough Ms. Beniko." Imperious said with stoic resignation, "I rather stay down here if you don't mind."

Lana looked at the fallen Sith with a mild surprise etched on her face. He never heard him addressing her as a Miss before, let alone the fact he sounded very much a defeated man. She wondered where that ferocity from earlier went.

"We have no time to waste, my lord. Your HK unit is currently tampering with the security cameras in this section."

Imperious craned his neck to look at the woman, "There's a supposedly dead emperor sharing space inside my head. Ms. Beniko."

That piece of news stopped Lana dead on her tracks, "WHAT!?"

He sighed and dropped his head back down the cold metallic floor with a dull thud, "Vitiate, or Valkorian, whichever you prefer to call him has been keeping me appraised with the situation in the galaxy. Or, whatever he wishes to show. It's all an illusion anyhow." He lazily wave his right hand around for emphasis. "Hey, Illusion-Lana. I haven't seen you since that death-defying carnage freeing that Jedi with a training saber up her ass."

"You-you saw that?"

"He was amused with your efforts to say the least" scoffed the lain-down Sith.

Once Lana finally gotten over her shock, she glared at him and stomp right over. This wasn't the same man that fought tooth and nail with her. Her only course of action to try and give the Sith Lord a dose of reality was something she wouldn't even dare do, especially to one of the saner ex-Dark Councilor to survive. Besides, she could almost place him in her short list of friends. Something Siths are reluctant to do so.

But, desperate times calls for desperate measures. Lana approach him then bent down to grab both Imperious's cheeks and pulled them apart.

The Sith cried out in pain as she squeezed and pulled his cheeks with all her might.

"There," she released them and wiping both of her hands while glaring down at the Sith who was rubbing his redden cheeks, "I don't believe your illusion-Lana would do something out of hand like that."

Imperious cackled, "The galaxy must have been turned upside down if Illusion-Lana is beginning to take initiative. Lana Beniko. From hence forth you'll be known now as Darth Cheek-Pincher. Lord and Master of cheeks, Front or Back."

Lana's cheeks reddened at the insinuation, clearly Darth Imperious suffered some kind of grievous head injury before being imprisoned in carbonite. She soon controlled her emotion and scowled at the laughing Sith. "My Lord, you've been clearly injured and in need of immediate medical attention." She manhandled the former Dark Councilor and lifted him on her shoulder.

Imperious didn't fight the spy master, content on being lifted by the clearly off-script illusion.

"HK, we're ready for extraction. How are the cameras?"

"Statement: Cameras are now looped for fifteen minutes. Query: has master been retrieved from his vile prison?"

"Yes, HK. Now go get the ship so we can get Darth Imperious into a Kolto Tank."

"Affirmative."

Onboard the Darth's personal Fury, Medical Bay.

Lana observed the medical readouts of the Kolto Tank. So far, his brain showed no signs of any injuries. Aside from the carbonite poisoning, he is the picture of health. She clucked her tongue, hoping what he said wasn't true at all. But, the readings told her he wasn't suffering from any sort of head trauma

The droid butler of ship scuffled into the tiny medical bay "Is there anything I can get you Mistress Lana?"

She shook her head, still looking at the floating Darth inside the tank. "I'm fine TooVee. Just make sure his outfit is ready once he wakes up."

"Of course, Mistress Lana. Right away." The droid bowed before scuffling again, this time out of the med bay.

The Spy Master, for a few minutes, lingered her eyes on the unconscious Darth before sighing and went about to attend to her other, official-Resistance business.

Imperious' Mindscape

"Was it wise for you to inform her that I'm in your head?" The grey-haired Valkorian, former Emperor of the Eternal Empire, mused as he walked around the fully-armored apparition of Darth Imperious floating mid-air with his legs crossed.

Imperious cocked his head at the supposedly dead emperor, "Facts are fact Emperor Vitiate, or Valkorian. You are inside my head with some obscure reason in mind. This is just a contingency in my part." He gave him a knowing look even though his expression was hidden behind his signature mask.

"I could have you escape at any time with my help. If you just accept it." Valkorian gave him a fatherly smile before slowly vanishing to somewhere else.

"I'm a Sith. We have trust issues as I am sure you intimately know" Imperious retorted before Valkorian completely disappeared. He sighed, five years of being frozen, helpless and now he's back in the game. Dragged back by an ally with an agenda on her own. While he might have an idea why she freed him, mainly Valkorian's out-of-control children and the Eternal Empire, he had no such intention in confronting the emperor's spoiled children drunk with power. At least, not yet anyway.

He clenched his gloved fists as memories of his life as a slave flashed before him. The countless lashes when he was just a little boy till as a young man nineteen-cycles old before he have had enough and displayed his force sensitivity in a spectacle of fire.

"Such an interesting time to live in don't you think?" A familiar voice reached him before a being materialized right in front of him.

"You finally appear when I'm now free." Horak-mul stood beside his floating form to stare at the passing stars. "What gives?"

The Sith ghost shrugged and simply said "I was just sight-seeing these past five years, was it? Besides, your new tenant seem to occupy much of your time and I rather not tangle with such _odd_ fellow, powerful too."

"Glad to know you have my back." Imperious deadpanned.

"I will once you decide enough is enough. Though to be fair, we don't know what's going to happen once we clash."

"I need to find a veritable expert in Sith Magic. Unless…" He intently eyed the ghost, "you know something that can help."

"I'm part of you now. You only need to look deep inside yourself to know that answer to that question."

Imperious laid still, as silence surrounded the two. For a minute no one said anything and the surrounding mindscape stilled. The countless blades of grass which gently swayed to a breeze which no one can feel stopped as was the sky, waiting for its master to surface.

Then suddenly, everything unfroze as Imperious cluck his tongue in disappointment. "That's one avenue off the list." The Forcewalker unfolded his legs and touched the ground. With both of his hands clasped behind his back, he walked near the edge of the floating island, which was surrounded by the inky blackness of space and surrounded by millions of twinkling stars.

Staring at something beyond the darkness of space, he spoke in a whispered tone. "I need to speak with my master."


End file.
